International Jazz musician WYCLIFFE GORDON to perform in Starkville Tuesday

November 28, 2010

An internationally-acclaimed jazz musician will share the stage this week with the Starkville-Mississippi State University Symphony orchestra.
Jazz musician Wycliffe Gordon will perform in Starkville as part of the Criss Christmas Concert at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Bettersworth Auditorium of Lee Hall on the MSU campus.
Robert Phillips, president of the Starkville-MSU Symphony Association said a concert featuring a great jazz musician is unusual for the Starkville Symphony.
â€śWe have seldom presented pops concerts,â€ť Phillips said. â€śJazz, however, is an important part of American culture and increasingly appears in what we usually think of as classical composition.â€ť
Phillips said the Symphony Association expects this concert to be outstanding.
â€śIt will include the some of the brass, woodwind, and percussion players from the symphony,â€ť Phillips said. â€śWe are very lucky to have someone of Wycliffe Gordonâ€™s talents and accomplishments as our guest soloist.â€ť
Dr. Michael Brown, conductor of the Starkville/MSU Symphony Orchestra, said Gordon is such an incredibly talented musician, this will be a special concert for the Starkville community.
â€śWycliffe Gordon is one of the most significant jazz musicians on the international scene today,â€ť Brown said.Â â€śIt will be a great opportunity for Starkville to have a musician of his caliber come for a visit.â€ť
Gordon enjoys an international career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and educator, receiving high praise from audiences and critics alike. In addition to a thriving solo career, he tours regularly leading the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet, headlining at legendary jazz venues throughout the world. Gordon is a former veteran member of the Wynton Marsalis Septet, Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and has been a featured guest artist on Billy Taylorâ€™s â€śJazz at the Kennedy Centerâ€ť Series.
For more information about the Criss Christmas Concert, go to http://www.starkvillemsusymphony.org.